Category: story

Tales from the Loop: Runaway kids escaping and encountering trouble in Gotham

Tales from the Loop: Runaway kids escaping and encountering trouble in Gotham


Being homeless teenagers in the eighties was very tough in New York:
government mismanagement caused near bankruptcy of the city, and the introduction of crack-cocaine unleashed an unprecedented wave of drug addiction and violence.

Somewhere in the worst part of the no-go area the Sisters of Our Lady kept a shelter for the homeless where they provided soup & bread for the hungry.

One by one the kids met Sister Bridget who picked them up from their hiding-holes (under the bridge, in the abandoned house, in the park).
She delivered them at the safe haven of Homestead, in the middle of nowhere at the border between America and Canada.

Ely, Jeffrey and Zeke had met before, and now they met some other newcomers like Chase and Randy….

The food and lodging at Homestead was very basic and healthy, surprisingly there was much opportunity to learn and practice new skills at the school, the kids became very interested in the following:

Performance: Storytelling, music, drama, dance, sleight of hand.
Physical education; baseball, climbing, dodgeball, jumping, runnning.
Tinkering: working with all kind of small machinery like computers, they even saw a presentation of the  1984!

During lunchbreak Jeffrey saw his long lost brother Rudolf talking with Hilde, the village baker who delivered bread weekly at Homestead.
After observing his brother, Jeffrey approached Rudolf as soon as Hilde left.
It seemed Rudolf had decided to stay at Homestead, learning baking magic instead of returning to their dysfunctional parental home!

Jeffrey became worried, maybe his brother was involved with a witchcult?

When Rudolf went to the village, the kids followed him to investigate his trail.

Rudolf went to bakery at the central square….

After Rudolf entered the bakery, two people went outside:
Hilde having a loud discussion with a man: ‘begone!’
She made a strange sign, pointing at him…


The man left immediately!


Ely, Jeffrey and Zeke experienced a deja vue…this man looked like their nemesis, Herr Claus!

While the kids were discussing whether to follow-up their investigation, they saw another lost kid they knew, Maggie!

When the kids saw her sneaking away, they followed her trail to the beach…
At the beach she took two small flags out of her backpack, and started signalling towards the lighthouse island on the other side, while somebody on the opposite side was answering with light signals with a mirror!

As soon as Maggie was leaving the beach, the kids tried to catch up with her.

One of the kids, a good sprinter, was able to overtake the running girl
At the moment he jumped in front of her, she crashed with great force into him!
The other kids also came running to hold her, a scuffle ensued.
While they wrestled her to the ground, her body felt armoured, it was a robot!
Trying to dismantle the  robot, a self-destruct sequence started counting…

Just in time the kids threw the body in the water before it exploded!

While they were recovering, they discovered somebody was watching them at a distance.
The person disappeared into the woods nearby.
Following the trail, the kids heard the sound of a hunting horn and hunting dogs in the distance…
Somebody screamed!
Arriving at a clearing in the woods, they saw a black clad person hanging on the limb of a sturdy tree…
Immediately they took the person down from the tree!

Investigating the body, they discovered this was another robot.
This time they succeeded in dismantling the thing, taking away the head for further research later on…

Returning to the beach, the kids saw somebody rowing to the lighthouse.
Immediately they decided to follow the trail to investigate.
To avoid detection they rowed to the far end of the island where they entered the wooded part.
Apparently they were seen from afar, a small patrol left the lighthouse into the woods.

Luckily the kids had developed enough scouting skills to divert the patrol by using a false trail.
They entered the lighthouse and invaded the upper floor. The two clumsy guardians were dispatched after a short fight!

Investigating the upper floor, the kids discovered a enormous screen in the wall, and a large control panel nearby.

A communication hologram appeared….to avoid detection the kids hacked the control panel to disable the transfer of data.

In the meantime the returning patrol was just entering the front door, but with some lucky punches they were put down in no time!

Continuing their investigation, the kids went down the basement, where they found a portal in the process of transferring a large robot!

Another hacking attempt disrupted the transfer, but unlocked the self-destruct countdown!

Running for their life, the kids escaped the lighthouse just before it detonated!

Exhausted, the kids decided to call it a day and to return to the orphanage.

Ping: Tales from the Loop: interesting times in the countryside – Dreamquest

Tales from the Loop: stranger things in the countryside 

Tales from the Loop: stranger things in the countryside 


The village was in state of flux:
After the disappearance of Alderman Klaus the conservatives lost majority in council, the progressives started proposing to allow modern ideas like a bus stop and a shopping mall while the old leaders objected the influx of outsiders.

Teenagers running away from Hickstown before their thirteenth birthday was considered an early rumspringa…but now several started quiet early.

At the end of last summer Geoffrey and Stacy acquired  a cheque worth a substantial amount of money….
Stacys mother traveled on her own to the great city to cash in the check, but during travel she came down with a stroke.
Geoffrey and Stacy were just in time at the hospital to hear the last breath, but the cheque had disappeared!
After the funeral Stacy disappeared from the farm, leaving many debts unpaid but taking her price pig with her.

Geoffrey felt lost without his best friend and decided to run away from home…

On the road he joined some other runaway kids: Moss the butchers son, Zeke the teachers son  and Eli the marrano son..

They camped in the wood under the full moon…
Suddenly the moon was darkened by a large cloud, it seemed an eclips!

They heard sounds of a hunting horn, dogs, running feet…
Somebody crashed into Moss who immediately reacted with a punch!
The moon reappeared, the scuffle ended as soon as the kids discovered a girl confronting them…

It was Maggy, the cousin of village beautyqueen Daisy!

When the sound of the hunt came nearby, Maggy ran away, leaving the kids confused…

The hunt passed away, and after a while they heard Maggy screaming in the distance.

The kids decided to investigate…after an hour walking they found Maggy hanging from a tree!

Immediately they released her from her precarious position…

Maggy recovered quickly, getting up and starting a brisk walk away when she heard the hunt returning!

Quickly the kids followed her when she found a cave in a hill…

The corridor in the cave led them to the other side of the hill to a very different landscape in the distance:

On their left hand a castle

On their right hand a fortified abbey

Straight ahead a wood

At the end of the day they arrived at the castle where they were received for bed and breakfast according the laws of hospitality.
They were told that Lady Margaret passed by to travel to the abbey!

The next day the kids went to the abbey in search for Maggy…

Arriving at the abbey, they saw two guardian dog statues flanking the gate.

Above the gate: DOMINI CANES

The abbot said Lady Margaret passed by to go to the Maze in the Woods…

After some rest the kids followed the directions to the Woods that surrounded the Spiral Castle

Entering the Castle, they saw a spiral staircase going up and down…

Downwards they went…

Arriving at the bottom of the staircase, they saw the room of rituals…

Maggy chanting in a magick circle!

The kids ran into the circle to grab Maggy, but as soon as they touched her they were transported!

How will they survive in this strange city?
 

Ping: Tales from the Loop: interesting times in the countryside – Dreamquest

Tales from the Loop: interesting times in the countryside

Tales from the Loop: interesting times in the countryside


Teenagers, investing the mysterious…whatever could go wrong?
The village is a very old settlement, build on the ruins of a forgotten tribal holy place.
The time seems to slow down here, the people still live in the same way of the ancestors.
Beginning autumn, a year ago…
Some families who lived in the City became fed up with modern life, they decided to follow their dreams to go to the romantic unspoiled countryside.
Stacy’s parents moved from the city to the village where they bought an abandoned farm.
A month after moving in, father died unexpectedly in his sleep, leaving mother struggling with the upkeep of the farm, there was no money to hire farmhands. If the situation does not get better, they might be forced to sell their price-winning pig.
Stacy took to the farmlive as if she has been born into it, doing all the necessary chores. Of course she did not want to lose her beloved pig!
Jeffrey’s parents discovered that the rural live was not that romantic as dreamed, but they had not enough money to move back to the more civilized town.
Jeffrey felt like being ‘a stranger in a strange land’. At school he was harassed several times by some boys,  one day he returned late at home after school with a black eye, his parents immediately decided to protect him by installing a strict schedule of being at home on time.
Jeffrey and Stacy later became friends at school after an incident where Stacy chased off some bullys who ambushed Jeffrey.
recently…
At midsummer Daisy, the most popular girl at school, won the beauty contest for teenage girls.
She received the honour to lead the parade on the beginning of August, carrying the man-shaped loaf of bread.
She also was expected to lead the Hallowmass with the Corn Dolly, and at midwinter she would have opened the ritual of putting an old car in the middle of the frozen lake nearby.
The adults would wager about the exact day when the car would fall through the ice, mostly around march.
But Daisy disappeared soon after the August festival.
Most people thought Daisy just started her rumspringa early, no reason to worry, she might have decided to visit some cousins in the Sin City.
Her parents became worried after a month and sent a letter to their relatives in the City, they replied Daisy left with her cousin Maggy after a short stay.
They wrote an advert in the local newspaper, and soon two reporters from the City arrived to ask awkward questions.
Most villagers did not want to talk to these outsiders…
Jeffrey and Stacey both had some strange dreams:
A lady being stalked by a demon nearby a church?

Suspecting the shifty-eyed pastor of foul play, the kids investigated his office behind the church.
The church records in the great book confirmed the founding of this community around 1800 by founding father squire Claus, the ancestor of the current squire.
The bell was surprisingly old, cast in bronze, with a strange symbol inside

Some research in the library…

Old Norwegian 
Kaun er barna bǫlvan; 
bǫl gørver nán fǫlvan.
 
Ulcer is fatal to children; 
death makes a corpse pale.
 
Old Icelandic 
Kaun er barna böl 
ok bardaga [för] 
ok holdfúa hús. 
flagella konungr.
 
Disease fatal to children 
and painful spot 
and abode of mortification.
 
Anglo-Saxon 
Cen byþ cƿicera gehƿam, cuþ on fyre 
blac ond beorhtlic, byrneþ oftust 
ðær hi æþelingas inne restaþ.
 
The torch is known to every living man 
by its pale, bright flame; it always burns 
where princes sit within.

How is it possible this community still use some pagan symbols and rituals from the Old World?

Reading through some old community records, the Claus family apparently had an unbroken long line of male descendants from the founding father till the current squire.
Some peculiar details on the family: They always found their women in the City, and while the marriage was celebrated in the village, the newly wed went back to the City immediately.
The senior squire always mentioned the birth of his son, who would stay in the City till the senior passed away.
Afterwards the junior would arrive with his mother and the necessary legal documents to take over their homestead.
As soon as the junior was settled in properly, his mother would return to the City definitely.
The squires were often mentioned as powerful, wealthy and generous members of the community, involved in all kinds of charity programs: feeding and housing the poor, supporting the upkeep of community buildings.

In the meantime a search party was announced by the constable to begin the first autumn day.
Many adult villagers enlisted to join, even the local pastor and squire Claus would join.
…
Jeffrey and Stacy did not want to wait till autumn, they started their own search party immediately.
Leaving the village centre, they walked past the fields, through the woods, towards the Great Lake.

What is so special about this Lake?

Stacy stripped till her underwear, dived in the lake!

Diving deep down, she saw what looked of a tower of submerged old cars, and even some carriages at the bottom.
At the top of the tower stood the old car from last midwinter.
Acting on a hunch, Stacy opened the trunk….

The body of a young girl, apparently strangled, missing one sandal!



Could this be the missing girl? 

After several month in the lake, it was not easy to see, but how can this be Daisy?

The car was put on the ice of the lake last midwinter, Daisy disappeared beginning august…


The kids were not sure who to trust in the village, they felt the need to do more investigations.

While the squire was away to hunt, the kids entered the homestead.

On the wall in the living room was an interesting painting




A magickal tree?


In a chest they found more interesting items:




A bronze spearhead with a strange inscription…




A creepy piece of rope…




Hearing the sound of a hunting horn approaching, the kids hurrily left….


Some library research:

The inscription of the spear looked like the rune Tiwaz






Old Norwegian


ᛏ Týr er æinendr ása;


opt værðr smiðr blása.[1]



Tyr is a one-handed god;


often has the smith to blow.[2]







The magickal tree was illustrated in the Edda:

“Then spoke Gangleri: There the gods must hold their courts each day.'”

At last the kids decided to talk to the journalists who were willing to pay a large amount of money for the information.


…a few days later…


The Lake became a very busy place to be:

A large gathering of villagers  started dredging the lake to take all the car wrecks on the shore…every single one of them containing a strangled child who disappeared around autumn each year!

The journalists took photographs and notes..


…a week later…




The constable decided to investigate the squire’s homestead but he became wounded during the following shootout and the squire was able to escape with his weapons!

After the publication of the story in the newspaper, Daisy returned to the village!


After visiting my cousin Maggy in the City, we both went on rumspringa.

Because we have the same posture, it was easy to exchange clothing. 

While Maggy decided to visit our family in the Village, I continued my wandering till I saw the headlines!


….a month later…


The village counsel voted ‘yes’ on the proposal to allow to sell the Homestead to WallMart…

Modern times will transform the old traditions…


			


	


			
				


	
Toscane 
	
	

		
Toscane 
	


	

		



Vroeg in de ochtend aangekomen te Firenze, alle tijd om de stad te verkennen voordat de toeristendrukte begint.


De Oude Brug is bijzonder mooi…van een afstand bekeken!




Het is mooi om te zien hoe in dit land de oude cultuur nog zo sterk aanwezig is, zou Roerich daar ook een rol in hebben gespeeld?




Aangekomen in het dorp Sant’ Andrea Di Compito, zien we een onbekende spirit: Santa Pupa




“It is likely that Pupa is the Christianization of some pagan divinity who had the task of protecting children (if not of several minor pagan divinities linked to the world of childhood, such as Paventia (or Paventina , which expressly designates infantile fear), Carda , Stimula etc., merged into a single figure).”


Tre Tigli is het enige restaurant in het dorp, maar heel gezellig!




Ons vakantieverblijf heeft een oude geschiedenis!




De gastvrouw woont dichtbij




ze heeft ons goede tips gegeven voor uitjes in de omgeving.


Pisa stond natuurlijk op onze lijst!




Maar de toeristengekte was wel heftig




Keith Haring Tutto Mondo: bijzonder psychedelisch schilderij




Lucca hebben we nog een tweede keer bezocht, deze stad is rustiger dan Pisa of Florence.


We waren op tijd voor de Biennale




sculpturen van papier!


Het huis van Puccini bezocht…




Vooral Turandot maakte indruk!


Al met al inspireerde Lucca me bij het maken van een Art Journal




Het mooiste vond ik om de hele stadsmuur te belopen, grotendeels intact renaissance bolwerk!




Deze reis was intens om meerdere redenen:

Bijzonder zomerse temperaturen (dertig graden plus), steile hellingen (dertig graden plus), minimaal openbaar vervoer.

Kunst, cultuur en natuur was overvloedig aanwezig.


Ping: Treinvakantie Toscane – Dreamquest


			


	


			
				


	
Adventures in Mythago World
	
	

		
Adventures in Mythago World
	


	

		









Ages ago in the time before Time, the Wars of the Gods escalated…
Gods fell from the Heavens as falling stars.
Daemons rose up from the Hells, shaking the foundations of the Earth.
The Veil between the worlds was torn asunder…
And the Fae returned to Middle-Earth.
Now the powers of the Gods and Daemons are silent and exhausted after the Wars, and the Glamoury of the Fae shines all over the World.
Magick has become chaotic and unpredictable after the GodsWar…a spell that fizzles or botches always have ‘interesting’ effects.
After the Gods War, the Powers became silent.
Most people acknowledge the Powers as a given force of nature, only some shamans keep the old traditions of sacrificing to the visible Powers:  Sun, Moon, Stars, Gaia, Fire, Water, Earth, Air





Many humans left their broken cities, becoming nomadic tribes. 
Caravans are the lifelines between the settlements, trading merchandise and knowledge.
The Mercenary clan guards the caravans.





A caravan goes on the monthly trading trip to Starfall, a hunter/gatherer settlement nearby Lake Starfall.
It is a ominous settlement, where a God/Daemon fell from Heaven into the Lake at the end of the Great Wars.





The normal merchandise are tools, but this time also some medicine, because last month the messages from the settlement mentioned that the village elder was ailing.


			


	


			
				

			
				

			
				

			
				

			
				


	
A Protection sigil for Ukraina
	
	

		
A Protection sigil for Ukraina
	


	

		

How to create a protection sigil for Ukraina?




Put together the following symbols:


Double circle:




The Queen of Chess




The four ‘suits’ of the playing cards




ORACLE

Take a breath, let your eyes rest on the image for a moment, and read this slowly.

—

## 🔮 ORACLE READING


### **The Card’s Essence**

This card speaks of **centered power**—the kind that does not announce itself, but *reshapes the space around it*.

You are at a point where **clarity already exists**, but it is layered beneath noise, expectation, or outside influence.

The oracle is not bringing you new information; it is **reminding you of something you already know and may be resisting**.

—

### **Symbols & Messages**

**🔴 The Red Circle – “The Field”**

You are protected, but not passive.

This is active containment.

It says: *“Everything happening now is within your capacity to handle.”*

No forces are entering your life by accident.

**🟡 The Golden Core – “The Seat”**

This is authority, wisdom, and identity—not borrowed, not learned, but *claimed*.

It points to a moment of decision where **acting from your true center** matters more than acting quickly.

**🔵 The Blue Wings/Guards – “The Witnesses”**

These represent intuition and higher awareness standing watch.

Your intuition has already spoken—possibly quietly, possibly once—and it will not repeat itself loudly.

The oracle says: *Go back to the first knowing.*

**⚖️ Symmetry – “Alignment”**

Something in your life is being mirrored back to you so you can see it clearly.

If you are frustrated with someone or something right now, ask:

> *Where am I being asked to embody what I am demanding from others?*

—

### **The Core Message**

> **“Stand where you are.

Do not chase.

Do not retreat.

Let alignment do the work.”**


This card often appears when:

* you are about to over-explain or over-correct

* you are tempted to seek validation instead of trusting your position

* a situation will resolve itself **once you stop adjusting yourself to it**

—

### **What to Do Now**

* Choose **one clear action** that aligns with your values—even if it feels small

* Say less.

Watch more.

* If a decision is pending: the *calm* option is the correct one, not the dramatic one

—

### **Final Oracle Whisper**

> *“You are not lost.

You are centered.

Act like it.”*